Q: With a rookie punter, he must drive you crazy. He has these beautiful punts and then all of the sudden he's got the low line drives...
A: It's the consistency we're looking for, obviously. He's talented enough. He can do it on the practice field, so he's got to translate it to the game. That's our biggest challenge right now.
Q: When you look at the video of him at ECU, was he consistent there?
A: He had good leg strength, but he had no control as far as direction, so we're trying to get the direction and the distance, to make sure they all go hand in hand.
Q: With Kehl gone and Blackburn hurt, how much different will the personnel be on Sunday?
A: Obviously it's an adjustment every week, so you've just got to try to have an idea of who is going to be the active guy and it's not always clear because of injuries, so you've got to get enough guys ready and then have enough guys ready to step in.
Q: At what point do you usually know?
A: Sometimes early in the week and sometimes it's not until the day before or the day of. Sometimes you work guys out beforehand, but you always have enough guys ready just in case. You cover your bases.
Q: How much is punting affecting Dodge mentally? How do you deal with that?
A: I'm sure it's all connected. Just try to be positive with him. He's got the ability to do it. He's just got to believe in it and go out and do it. I think once he has that good day, it just unleashes itself.
Q: Do you find yourself trying to reinforce that now? Is it to the point where you're worried about him mentally?
A: No. I mean, we're always working the mental edge of it - being positive with them, making sure that they're going through the right things, they're saying the right things to themselves beforehand to really reinforce the positive.
Q: Just kicking the thing as hard as you can doesn't really work in the NFL, does it?
A: No. There's a lot of technique involved. Unfortunately we went from a guy who was really very consistent with everything. The only thing that diminished was leg strength as time went on, but still, the ball flight and everything else was there. That's what we're working with Matt on - trying to get the consistency.
Q: How has Darius Reynaud been adapting to everything that's being thrown at him right now?
A: Good. I mean, it was a lot in one week, just as far as a new team, new city. His wife and...he has a 5-year-old daughter who was ready to start school and all of the sudden he's moved here and he's gotten thrown right in the fire to do the kickoff returns, punt returns, and play on the kickoff team as well - he was subbed in there late in the game. So, yeah, he's adapting well. He's been very solid for us.
Q: Jason Pierre-Paul is a guy who had never played special teams before. What makes him good out there?
A: He's very, very talented, number one, obviously being the first round pick. And he's got a good attitude, so he's got a desire to want to go and chase the ball and get after it, but he was pretty clean on the blocking signs too as far as when he's in on kickoff returns and punt returns, so that was really positive. He's been in and done a lot of drills in the spring, we didn't do anything with him in the preseason just so he could get his reps at defensive end, but he was positive. He's really a force out there, which is good to see.
Q: When you talk about Dodge having a good day. How long can you go before you have to make some changes?
A: Well, you see him in practice, he puts good days together, so you just need to see him put the game together. He's had better pregames and so you're hoping at some point he'll get to that point. I'm sure we'll cross that bridge when we get there. There's a lot of decision makers here and we'll consult and put our heads together.
Q: He said he was nervous...
A: Jeff Feagles got nervous. I remember in the preseason game - I was laughing with Jeff on the phone the other day about that - I said, Jeff, you remember when you told me that you were nervous in a preseason game? And this was after his 20th year, all those balls. And then when we played the Super Bowl with him, he was petrified on the first snap. This is a guy that's got a few punts behind him so that's part of it. We think it's easy to just go out there and just do it, but it's different, it's hard. We try to simulate it for him in practice, but it's tough.
Q: Will punting indoors this week help?
A: You'd hope so. They love going indoors. Guys love going indoors because you don't have to deal with the wind and all those other factors, but it's still going to come down to between the ears.
Q: With coverage problems, was it just lane assignments?
A: Kickoff, yeah. We had some new guys running down and they played fast, they played physical, but we were a little bit out of control, so we've got to clean that up and make sure that we're not forcing the defense into a bad starting position.